Page 127 – Spectacle Theater

JESSE MALMED’S UNTITLED (JUST KIDDING)

Posted on June 14, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

TUESDAY, JULY 22 – 8:00 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!

Jesse Malmed is a Chicago-based artist and curator working in video, performance, text, occasional objects and their gaps and overlaps. He has performed, screened and exhibited at museums, microcinemas, film festivals, galleries, bars and barns. In addition to his creative work, Jesse programs at the Nightingale Cinema, co-directs the mobile exhibition space Trunk Show and has programmed work in a wide variety of contexts individually, as a member of Cinema Project and as the peripatetic Deep Leap Microcinema. A native of Santa Fe, Jesse earned his BA at Bard College and his MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was recently named a “2014 Breakout Artist” by Newcity.

We’re pleased to welcome our friend and fellow microcineaste to the Spec to present a short program of his motion picture works, peppered with performances and several interludes of “Conversational Karaoke.”

WREADING (2012), 18 minutes or so, color, sound, video

Reading as writing. A romp through meaning-making and diffuse divination. The clouds hold secrets. Tuli Kupferberg is not the beluga, but the beluga sings human. Charles Bernstein. The world is a word is a world. Cloud covers.

THIMBLERIG (2012), 11ish minutes, color, sound, video

Body swaps, time manifest and made literal, multiverse tears, two minds to a body, dream babies, singtalk, represented realities.

CONQUE (2012), 8 minutes or so, color, sound, video, performance
Sixteen—at least—ideas and images in search of a trajectory. The voice you hear is your own, interrupted and ruptured, while a little real-life actualizing is all they need. Frank Stella, Phreak Headroom, Robert Creeley, Quixotic Tivoli, the demography of the Sitcom Set, Pizza Burger Covers and and. My favorite parts are when the permeability of the screen is made clear: when the diegesis becomes our world and when cinema’s prosthetic memory becomes a site for immortality. For Jonah Adels.

GOTH MOVIE (CHEMIROCHA) (2013), 02:36, color, sound, video

Goth breakfast, flying lanterns, alien landscapes, mirrors and seeings. Séance Nonfiction.

DO VOICES (2014), 15 minutes, color, sound, video, performance

Choirs, choirs, Robin Williams, the contemporary folk art ensemble of youtube, George Mason University’s English Accent Archive, Shamuel Beckett and others come together for a We Are The World / We Arendt -style movie/concert/concert movie. Highly recommended for those already there, those on their way. Topics include: where you’re from and how you sound, the imaginative space of the bootleg, the morass of language, the virtuosity of a radio on scan and typing in stereo.

SUPERNYM (2013) a little shy of 13 minutes, color, sound, video

The wave is simultaneously distinct from the ocean and a part of it. A part and apart. The piece and the whole. Constituency and contingency. The difference that makes a difference and those that don’t. Loop. Stella. Please call Stella. Tell me where accents come from. And more than just that they come from places. The morass of sound and image and data from which language emerges, from which the crisis emerges. Please call Stella. The wave is simultaneously distinct from the ocean and a part of it. A part and apart. The piece and the whole. Constituency and contingency. The difference that makes a difference and those that don’t. Loop. Stella. Please call Stella. Tell me where accents come from. And more than just that they come from places. The morass of sound and image and data from which language emerges, from which the crisis emerges. Please call Stella.

VISUAL MUSIC: AN iotaSALON COLLECTION 1960-2014

Posted on June 14, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

SATURDAY, JULY 12 – 8:00 PM – ONE NIGHT ONLY

“All of a sudden it hit me—if there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion. After all, there are melodic figures, why can’t there be figures of motion?” -Len Lye

The iotaCenter is the premiere source for the presentation, preservation, and research of visual music, a language of abstract experimental film pioneered by figures like Mary Ellen Bute, Len Lye, and Harry Smith, and continued to the present day.

In conjunction with the New York City premiere of newly restored works by Robert Darroll, Spectacle is pleased to also partner with the iotaCenter on a retrospective of works ranging from the 1960s to present: an evening of visual music, color rhythm, color music, rhythmic light, lumia, digital harmony, liquid light, absolute film, visual harmony, abstract animation, abstract expressionist cinema, and kinetica.

Special thanks to Huckleberry Lain.

TENTATIVE SCREENING LIST (All 16mm Prints Confirmed)

SCRATCH PAD
Hy Hirsh, 1960. 8 min. On 16mm!

HEAVY LIGHT
Adam K. Beckett, 1973. 7 min. On 16mm!

FURIES
Sara Petty, 1977. 3 min. On 16mm!

CALCULATED MOVEMENT
Larry Cuba, 1985. 7 min. On 16mm!

BLOOMY GIRLS
Takagi Masakatsu, 2005. 5 min.

JOSHUA HIS TREE
Michael Robinson, 2006. 6 min.

SON OF PUDDLE JUMPER
Chris Casady, 2009. 2 min.

APRES LE FEU
Jacques Perconte, 2010. 7 min.

THE DEEP DARK
Laura Heit, 2011. 7 min.

FIELDS
Dr. Strangeloop, 2012. 7 min.

ANTIQUITIES FOR THE QUEEN OF ANGELS
Huckleberry Lain, 2013. 10 min.

OCEAN
Stephanie Maxwell, 2014. 12 min.

Huckleberry Lain, Antiquities for the Queen of Angels

About the iotaCenter

The iotaCenter is a non-profit arts organization, founded in 1994, devoted to the preservation and promotion of experimental animation and abstract visual music. Through our online discussion group and The Visual Music Village social network, we foster a worldwide community of artists, scholars and fans of this art form. iota has received numerous grants for its programs in film preservation and archiving and maintains a video study center for students, scholars and curators doing research in the genre.

ROBERT DARROLL RETROSPECTIVE including THE KOREAN TRILOGY

Posted on June 14, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

ROBERT DARROLL RETROSPECTIVE
including THE KOREAN TRILOGY
1986-2011. 65 min.
USA. HD video.

New York City Premiere of New Restorations!
iotaCenter’s Jeremy Schwartz in attendance

Special Thanks to Huckleberry Lain, Anthology Film Archives, and the Academy Film Archive

FRIDAY, JULY 11 – 8:00 PM

“The first words that come to mind about Robert Darroll’s films are density and complexity — of imagery, technique and style. He assimilates, transforms and transcends almost every technique in the history of animation. This is the apotheosis of motion graphics – simultaneously photographic, videographic and computer graphic. Darroll creates a hypnotic and visionary universe through virtuosic use of rotoscoping, compositing, layering, filtering and complex segmentations of the frame.” -Gene Youngblood

This July, Spectacle is pleased to partner with the iotaCenter to spotlight a trio of unsung masterpieces of avant-garde cinema: Robert Darroll’s KOREAN TRILOGY. Spectacle will screen brand new HD transfers of prints preserved by the Academy Film Archive. Jeremy Schwartz, member of iotaCenter’s Board of Directors, will be in attendance to present the films.

Created as a reflection upon an intense research period into Korean culture and East Asian philosophy, THE KOREAN TRILOGY represents three of the most complex analog animation techniques ever captured on film: a crazy mix of abstractions that dazzle the eyes. Transitions are abound and bring hundreds of emotions flowing smoothly from showering colors to spiraling abstractions and rippled designs. You won’t believe this was all shot on film.

“Darroll understands that digital technology’s most important contribution to moving image art is the seamless merging of photographic and synthetic imagery, live action with animation. Organic figures are set against elegant geometric constructions, shot through with startling vectors and trajectories.

“Visual density is matched by sonic density. Darroll’s sound design evolves from the Theremin-like electronic score of Memb to dazzling multilayered blends of natural and synthetic sounds in later works.

“The earlier works show the influence of Oskar Fischinger, Viking Eggeling, Len Lye, Paul Glabicki, even a touch of Jordan Belson. But gradually he transcends them to give us the unique vision of a true master of his art. The films are ravishingly beautiful journeys through the corridors of an inspired imagination.” -Gene Youngblood

This screening is a tribute to the late filmmaker, who passed away during its organization. This work and several others are also available on a DVD released by the iotaCenter this summer. We’re grateful to the iotaCenter’s Huckleberry Lain for initiating this program.

Korean Trilogy (16mm in HD digital video)

Lung (1986, 11:24) • Feng Huang (1988, 10:29) • Stone Lion (1990, 10:14)

Experience three of the most complex analog animation techniques ever captured on film. A crazy mix of abstractions that dazzle the eyes. Transitions are abound and bring you through hundreds of emotions flowing smoothly from showering colors to spiraling abstractions to rippling designs. You won’t believe this was all shot on film. Created as a reflection upon an intense research period into Korean culture and East Asian philosophy.

Soundtracks: Sukhi Kang and the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin

Production: Folkmar Hein

Restoration: Mark Toscano and the Academy Film Archive

Taiwanese Trilogy (digital video)

Things Fall Apart (2011, 5:37) • How Technology Saved the World (2011, 5:37) • What Ghosts Like Most (2011, 5:37)

Scientific analyses presented in a mashing of abstraction and video manipulation. Stare into the soul of humanity while contemplating the existence of the universe. These are three intense approaches to the same audio tracks. As a companion to his previous trilogy this series follows as an interpretation to a period of teaching in Taiwan over a lengthy period.

Soundtracks: Robert Darroll and Pierre Henri

Noemata No. 1 (digital video – 2001, 6 min)

“This composition uses documentary material interlaced in various rhythms. The individual frames of the original material have been reworked and then placed so that their numerical order is retained although they are separated by other sequences of frames. The object of this is to create a new sequence of images by blending different sequences together and by decreasing the continuity of the frames. The video also includes passages of continuous animation.” RD

Award winner Media Prize by the Bund Deutsche Industrie (2001) and Asolo Art Film Festival prize for computer animation (2002). Hoeren und Sehen Production Grant awarded by the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany (2004)

Music: Sean Reed

Stele (digital video – 1999, 11 min)

“Does an increase in complexity imply a qualitative evolutionary advance and are we able to impose a sense of direction, or indeed a goal, on that process? Are these impositions not in fact the servants of our innate need for purpose related value? Is an illusory orientation more effective than disillusioned disorientation? Or insane contentment better than morbid insight? From this distant perspective, all that can be witnessed is an apparently aimless and fragmented ebb and flow, leaving myriads of spent forms adrift in the virtual afterworld of memory.” RD Award winner at CYNET art prize for computer animation, 2000

Soundtrack: Kiyoshi Furukawa at the ZKM, Karlsruhe

About Robert Darroll

Robert Darroll studied in Germany until 1974, then worked independently as a media designer and media artist in Europe until 2001 when he relocated to Japan. After a decade in Japan, Robert Darroll moved to Taiwan. He held professorships at the Department of Intermedia at the Tokyo National University of Art and Music, at the Nagoya University of Art and Science and at the Department of Digital Media at the Ming Chuan University. He is associated with the ZKM in Germay and the iotaCenter.

About the iotaCenter

GUTS AND GOULASH: TWO OSTERNS BY GYÖRGY SZOMJAS

Posted on May 29, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

The kind of revelatory discoveries that give intrepid cinephiles faith there are always more would-be classics left to uncover, György Szomjas’s so-called “goulash westerns”—perhaps the first and only examples, and a genre unto themselves—blend period-specific social realism, documentary-level research, and extreme cinematic stylization and violence into something suggesting an unlikely marriage of Sergio Leone and Miklós Jancsó. They turn the “Ostern” or “Red Western” genre — better known for its more plentiful USSR, Czech, East German, and Romanian iterations — completely inside out, representing works that make serious, sobering inquiries into historical change while artlessly reconfiguring genre tropes.

Though we had previously screened THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET last year, subtitles for its follow-up, BAD GUYS, have only recently become available. A significant amount of work has been done by Spectacle to clean up its best-available video source, resulting in a presentation that’s unlikely to be delivered anywhere else.

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET
Dir. György Szomjas, 1976.
Hungary. 95 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 – 5:00 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 – 5:00 PM

György Szomjas brings exquisite style and pacing to this elegiac gallows western about a betyár — a kind of highwayman popular in 19th century Hungarian balladry — set amid the Great Hungarian Plain in 1937. It follows the path of a brooding, aging outlaw newly escaped from prison whose personal revenge quest dovetails with the interests of the landless herdsman who oppose the state’s building a canal through the fields on which they work their trade. He becomes an unlikely hero to unwashed vagabond workers while facing down a mutually-admiring adversary in the form of a forthright squire who had captured him before. Meanwhile, an opportunistic youngster attempts to work both sides to his benefit. As ditches are dug for canals and corpses alike, the state puts increasing pressure on the wistful squire, who realizes the social order is changing and his fortunes are in decline; and yet he remains dutifully attached to his mission.

Though carefully paced and based on historical documents, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET aims squarely for populist appeal. The autumnal palette, period imagery, and sudden outbursts of hysterical grotesquery recall Andrzej Żuławski’s THE DEVILS. Yet most of all it brings to mind the unlikely grouping of Woody Guthrie, Miklós Jancsó, and Akira Kuroswawa — or maybe Béla Tarr meets Sergio Leone. Whatever the comparisons, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is a stirring, forgotten gem in classic Spectacle tradition and not to be missed.

Trigger warning: Realistic animal violence

BAD GUYS
Dir. György Szomjas, 1979.
Hungary. 85 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 – 7:30 PM

The year is 1864. Beginning with a brief historical treatise on the Revolution of 1848’s dissolution of Hungary’s feudal agriculture system and poor farmers’ struggles to adapt to capitalistic reorganization of society, then followed by a violent raid that leaves a judge with a knife in his gut and a bullet through in his heart, BAD GUYS is one of the most bleak, unremittingly violent leftist westerns ever made, making Sergio Leone’s DUCK, YOU SUCKER! look like QUACKBUSTERS.

THE WIND IS WHISTLING’s Dzsokó Roszics plays the opposite side of the law as peacekeeper Hegyessy, who is on the trail of bandits led by the notorious peasant outlaw Jóska Gelencsér. Though Gelencsér has been evading the law in part due to his popularity with the common masses, his previously non-violent group’s murder of a landowning judge has drawn increased pressure from the elite for Hegyessy to bring Gelencsér and his men to justice. And yet the lawman’s efforts to deliver their wishes are reeled in at every turn for fear they might damage the elites’ other capitalistic interests. Meanwhile, Gelencsér’s second-in-command hatches a plan with his wife to sell the group out in a bid for clemency, carefully orchestrating each betrayal so that they appear to originate from outsiders, whom the Gelencsér begins to savagely tear through, leaving a trail of guts and spilt goulash in their wake.

The Hungarian title, Rosszemberek, could also be translated to “Bad People” or “Wrong-Doers” — it’s not about “bad guys” in the stock genre sense so much as full-formed characters who are rotten to their core and determined to inflict their ugliness on decent people; the black undertow of historical sea change. There are clear villains, but no heroes—only those wise enough to accept their own helpless lot while the evil divide spoils and death.

Trigger warning: Realistic animal violence

FAR EAST FEMMES WITH FIREARMS

Posted on May 29, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

This June, Spectacle presents two classics of the ‘Girls With Guns’ genre- a style of Asian action films featuring strong female leads packing serious amounts of heat and deadly kung-fu moves.

Originated by 50s Japanese B-movie icon Seitaro Suzuki and popularized during the 80s and 90s, these films are now considered commonplace amongst the Hollywood landscape, usually festering in video game adaptations (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) or genre pastiche (Kill Bill).

The best ones, however, not only feature visceral gunplay and hire-wire martial art acts, but also situate the female lead as the dominating hero warrior over the weaker sex, in both the fabric of the film and in Asian society.

Luckily, we’ve picked two of the best. Hold on to your butts, because they’re about to get picked up and slammed.

NAKED KILLER
Dir. Clarence Fok Yiu-leung, 1992
Hong Kong, 93 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 9 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – 10 PM

A gleefully sleazy, over-the-top CAT III camp romp about dueling lesbian contract killers and the impotent policeman caught in the middle, NAKED KILLER is a joyous ode to all things (s)excessive.

Following a traumatic crime bust gone awry, Hong Kong cop Taninan can’t seem to perform in the line of duty or in the bedroom… until he meets the enchanting seductress/killer Kitty. Their tango is soon cut short by Sister Candy, a veteran assassin who snatches Kitty away and teaches her the ways of professional execution and how to tap into her sensual side. Almost just as quick, two of Sister Candy’s previous students show up to murder their former teacher, prompting an all-out lesbian assassin war.

With tongue planted firmly in-cheek, director Fok Yiu Leung crosses titillating eroticism with a strong sociological undercurrent denouncing male piggishness. But he also knows how to entertain, and wildly so: copious amounts of milk drinking, dick slicing, office shoot-’em-ups, underwater knife fights, and Skinemax soft-core lesbian playfulness all wrapped up in a engrossing amount of 90s neon bliss… it’s all here and then some.

This is the 1992 summer action blockbuster you deserve.

“Imagine the erotic world of Basic Instinct exaggerated into a kung-fu cartoon of sexy lesbian avengers executing quadruple leaping somersaults in a deadly assault against the opposite sex.” -The New York Times

“John Woo on acid… Naked Killer breaks Mach 5 within the first 10 minutes and never lets up. Bursting with colorful lighting, angles, and set pieces, it’s a panoply of Nineties sex and violence, decadence for decadence’s sake, with little moralizing thrown in. A genuine crowd-pleaser…” -The Austin Chronicle

“It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before… a stylized girlie graphic novelization of psycho hot babe killers as channeled through and re-imagined by Quentin Tarantino… Naked Killer is girl power gone gonzo, a geek’s wet dream doused with libido lightening messages about Chinese society’s misogyny.” -Pop Matters

YES, MADAM
(aka Police Assassins)
Dir. Corey Yuen, 1985
Hong Kong, 90 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 17 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – 7:30 PM

A female buddy-cop/martial-arts movie featuring international stars Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock in their breakout roles, YES, MADAM follows Inspector Ng (Yeoh) teaming up with Scottish investigator Carrie Morris (Rothrock) to get on the trail of a crooked businessman hellbent on getting an incriminating piece of microfilm back from a bubbling group of low-level criminals who stole it.

The first significant roles for both leading ladies (Yeoh a former beauty queen and Rothrock a former marital arts instructor), the film became a critical and commercial success and launched the careers of both women, with subsequent sequels and spin-offs for the YES, MADAM franchise. Most importantly, it provided the blueprint for all future ‘girls with guns’ films: an equal mixture of acrobatic spectacle and determined heart.

A NIGHT WITH SU FRIEDRICH (IN PERSON!)

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

A NIGHT WITH SU FRIEDRICH: “SINK OR SWIM” ON 16MM & NEW YORK PREMIERE OF “QUEEN TAKES PAWN”
Dir. Su Friedrich, 1990 / 2013
USA, 48 min (full program: 85 min)

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – 8 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY – FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
ON 16MM!

“A major filmmaker.” – P. Adams Sitney, VISIONARY FILM: THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE

Spectacle is pleased to welcome Su Friedrich in person for a 16mm screening of her masterpiece SINK OR SWIM (1990), followed by a selection of her short films, including the New York Premiere of her latest work QUEEN TAKES PAWN (2013).

SINK OR SWIM is a searing, lyrical and presumably autobiographical portrait of a girl’s relationship with her erudite, emotionally distant father who eventually abandons her family when she’s 11. Grouped into 26 complex, formally varied episodes, each named after a letter of the alphabet (recalling Hollis Frampton’s ZORNS LEMMA) and presented in descending order (“Zygote,” “Y Chromosome,” “X Chromosome…” and so on, to “Athena/ Atalanta/ Aphrodite”) the film offers a fragmented but highly controlled and narrative document of the girl’s eventual emergence into womanhood, a woman both shaped by and at odds with her past.

Most of the episodes are narrated by a young girl, who tells intimate anecdotes in a poised, clinical manner that can only be attributed to a much older voice. While she speaks, the images – found footage, home movies, TV sitcoms, lesbian pornography, newly-filmed footage – instead of literally corresponding to the text, contradict, undermine or underline it, creating poetic, often humorous, connections and subtexts. The chapter titles (Quicksand, Flesh, Loss, Bigamy) create yet another layer of meaning.

The father, after explaining the principles of swimming, throws the girl into the deep end and leaves her to fend for herself, while we see playful, contemporary footage of children swimming. He teaches her chess but when she finally beats him, he never plays with her again. Her mother, standing on a window ledge, threatens suicide, while her father shakes his head and walks away; we see only hospital footage. As an adult, she meets her new, much younger stepsister and sees her childhood being repeated; we see Friedrich, now an adult, naked in a bathtub, then sitting at a typewriter, perhaps writing the text for the film. As the stories build, complex patterns emerge, and themes of water, Greek mythology and 1950s television recur frequently.

Friedrich speaks through the voice of the young girl, but the girl refers only in the third-person to “The Girl” (and, later, “The Woman”), a double distancing technique which conflates the past self and present self, the personal and the universal, so that Friedrich’s wry, rigorously objective analysis, an inquiry into family structure, childhood and womanhood, paradoxically remains an intensely personal plea to “tell me what you think of me.”

“…a film that is proudly personal and triumphantly artisanal, as accessible as it is uncompromising”. – J. Hoberman, PREMIERE MAGAZINE

“Friedrich weaves narrative upon narrative, using her past as a lens through which she may gaze critically at everything from the construction of the Self, to social definitions of femininity and womanhood, and the ideals of the American family. Friedrich considers these issues with a tenderness and subtlety which is at once astounding and breathtaking. Sink or Swim is simply brilliant.” – Joanna Chlebu, FEMINIST REVIEW

In addition to presenting the rare opportunity to view SINK OR SWIM on 16mm, Spectacle is thrilled to present Su Friedrich’s new work QUEEN TAKES PAWN in its New York premiere, described by Friedrich as “A journey through an old house by way of a mirror, a child’s storybook, and some images from days gone by. Or a journey through some old images by way of a house. Or both.”

AND THIS IS FREE

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

AND THIS IS FREE
Dir. Mike Shea, 1965
USA, 50 min. (+20 min. of supplements)

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 16 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 26 – 7:30 PM

During its heyday, the Maxwell Street Market in Chicago was the biggest and most populated open-street market in America, and a singular cultural melting-pot – it has been called “the Ellis Island of the Midwest”. Thousands of people swarmed there every weekend to shop for bargains and second-hand junk on pushcarts and in stores (Ron Popeil got his start there). They also came for the entertainment: hucksters, hustlers, eccentrics, sidewalk preachers and, most famously, the street musicians, including many of Chicago’s blues greats.

Mike Shea’s only film is a seldom-seen pioneering cinema-vérité masterpiece, an essential historical document of Chicago and the market as a quintessential public space (the market was dismantled in 1994 to make room for student housing). Shea, who had been a photojournalist for Life and other magazines, shot the film over 16 Sundays (the market’s busiest day) in 1964, and was often accompanied on the shoot by 21-year old Mike Bloomfield, later of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Dylan’s Highway 61-era band, who knew the street musicians and helped facilitate filming. AND THIS IS FREE features blues and gospel performances by legendary Chicago musicians Robert Nighthawk, Johnny Young, Blind Arvella Gray, Jim & Fannie Brewer, Carrie Robinson and many more.

AND THIS IS FREE is one of the greatest documentaries of the 1960s and perhaps the liveliest portrait of American street life ever captured on film. The 50-minute feature will be supplemented by additional rare footage documenting the market and the musicians who played there.

Special thanks to Shanachie.

DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS
Dir. George Barry, 1977
USA, 77 min.

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 10 PM

It came to George Barry in a dream and it will be there for yours, too.

In a single room in a small building next to a large mansion on a barren estate lies a very comfortable bed; a bed in which many have rested yet none have made up. Narrated by a bygone victim—the spirit of Aubrey Beardsley (literally)—DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS tells a long, surreal tale of ancient, demonic possession in the one place that visitors find solace… or try to.

Structured around the stages of a multi-course meal and filmed at the gorgeous, now-demolished Gar Wood mansion in Detroit, DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS PEOPLE famously gained release for the first time in any form in 2004 upon first-(and-only)-time writer/director George Barry recollection that it existed after browsing internet forums. Then, in 2007—thirty-five full years after production began in 1972—the film achieved its most mainstream notoriety in a stand-up bit (yes indeed) by comedian Patton Oswalt that ended up on his bestselling album “Werewolves and Lollipops.”

Special thanks to Nico B.

Cult Epics is a DVD/BD/VOD label that specializes in Cult, Horror, Art House, and Erotica films. It has released the work of directors such as Fernando Arrabal, Rene Daalder, Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast), Agustí Villaronga (In A Glass Cage), Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer), Radley Metzger’s Erotic Masterpieces “Score,” “The Lickerish Quartet” and “Camille 2000” and the majority of Tinto Brass’ directorial outings. The label is also home to the “Bettie Page” films and Nico B’s feature debut “Bettie Page Dark Angel” for fans of the legendary 1950′s pin-up icon, as well as various collections of Vintage erotic short films. Other classics include “Slogan” featuring Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin and Jean Genet’s “Un Chant D’Amour.”

SCREWED

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

SCREWED
Dir. Alexander Crawford, 1996
USA, 85 min.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – 10 PM [Featuring Q&A with former editors of SCREW!]

On December 19th, 2013, New York City said goodbye to a cultural institution. Well, some said “goodbye;” others said “good riddance.”

Al Goldstein—pornographer, cable access host, free speech activist and unapologetic scumbag—was never afraid to offend, and treated bad taste like something of a birthright. As the publisher of SCREW Magazine and the host of the television show MIDNIGHT BLUE, Al Goldstein had two particularly prominent platforms at his disposal… and plenty of bile to spew from both of them.

The 1996 film documentary SCREWED, directed by Alexander Crawford and produced by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland (“Hated,” “Frat House,” “The Hangover Movies”), follows Goldstein as he eats pussy, hits on transsexuals, strolls through his unrecognizable, pre-gentrification Williamsburg birthplace and flips bird after bird at target after target. Though Goldstein spent the last years of his life in poverty, SCREWED captures the man at the height of his powers, sitting fat and satisfied atop a multimillion-dollar porn empire. (How many million, you ask? “Fuck you for wanting to know,” intones the film’s subject.) The film also features interviews with Al’s fans, as well as his enemies (including Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa) as they navigate a pre-Giuliani New York City in its final years of seediness. In the New York City of 1996, Time Square is still a hotbed of depravity, peepshows and porn stores are common, and hookers can be picked up easily right off the street (and occasionally interviewed on camera).

Featuring a killer soundtrack by Amphetamine Reptile Records (including all-original tracks by Melvins, Mudhoney, Boss Hog, Cows, and more), SCREWED is a filthy, fascinating portrait of sweaty, pink-faced, 400-pound god in a universe of his own making.

Poster by Preston Spurlock.

EPHEMERA: GOING TO THE CHAPEL

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

EPHEMERA: GOING TO THE CHAPEL
1940-1967
Approx. 85 min., Color/B&W, USA

RETURNING IN FEBRUARY 2017!!
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – 7:30PM

Our monthly EPHEMERA program aims to present educational films from the post-war era without the usual ironic framing, letting the films’ genuine charm and dated sensibilities shine through on their own.

June’s series, GOING TO THE CHAPEL, walks you up to the altar and beyond. From getting serious about dating, to picking the proper mate, to dealing with domestic squabbles, these films aimed to teach a generation relationship skills and entice them into domesticity. With marriage an important social and civic institution and major part of the U.S. economy, these films were intended to encourage, reassure, and most importantly, prepare young couples for the realities of marriage.

GOING TO THE CHAPEL spans a narrow slip of time from the end of the 1940s, after two world wars and economic slumps cast doubt on the entire institution of marriage, to the post-war boom of the early 1950s, when the marriage rate skyrocketed to the point of a housing shortage for new couples. It’s no surprise then that the films range from neorealist case studies to perky sales pitches.

Today, the median age for marriage is at an all-time high, and the U.S. marriage rate is at an all-time low. In the 1950s, the median age was at an all-time low and marriage rates soared. This generation has the luxury of getting to know potential spouses well before marriage – earlier generations went straight from parental homes to their own households, barely getting a chance to know themselves outside their nuclear family. GOING TO THE CHAPEL showcases the well-intended attempts to patch the gap and warn against rushing into freedom and sex, taking a pragmatic look and optimistic jump into dating and marriage.

Special thanks to the Internet Archive, Rick Prelinger and everyone at the Prelinger Archive.

Rick Prelinger began collecting “ephemeral films”— educational, industrial, amateur, advertising, or otherwise sponsored—in 1982, amassing over 60,000 on physical film before his collection was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002. Since then, the Prelinger Archive has grown and diversified: it exists in physical library form in San Francisco and is gradually being ported online to the Internet Archive (http://archive.org), where 6,462 of its films are currently hosted (as of this writing).

The contents of the Prelinger Archive’s vary in accord with humanity. Historic newsreels, mid-century automobile infomercials, psychological experiments, medical procedurals, big oil advertisements, military recruitment videos, political propagandas, personal home videos, celebrity exposes, amateur narratives, scientific studies, war bulletins, instructional films, special interest op-eds, safety lessons, hobby guides, travel destination profiles and private industry productions all sit comfortably together in one marginalized category.

HOW MUCH AFFECTION?
Crawley Films, Ltd.,1958

IS THIS LOVE?
Crawley Films, Ltd., 1957

HOW DO YOU KNOW IT’S LOVE?
Coronet Films,1950

CHOOSING FOR HAPPINESS
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

ARE YOU READY FOR MARRIAGE?
Coronet Films, 1950

GOING STEADY?
Coronet Films, 1951

IT TAKES ALL KINDS
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

SOCIAL-SEX ATTITUDES IN ADOLESCENCE
Crawley Films, Ltd., 1953

WHEN SHOULD I MARRY?
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1957

ENGAGEMENT PARTY
Sterling-Movies USA, 1956

GOOD GROOMING FOR GIRLS
Cheseborough-Ponds, ca. 1940s

TOMORROW ALWAYS COMES
Lamont-Clemens, Inc., 1941

CONSUMING WOMEN
Jam Handy Organization, 1967

DAYS OF OUR YEARS
Dudley Pictures Corporation, 1955

BRIDE AND GROOM
NBC Television, 1954

MARRIAGE PSA
ABC Television, 1964

UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL: PALISADES PARK, ZIPPY WEDDING
Universal City Studios, ca. 1940s

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1940

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1944

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1942

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1955

MARRIAGE TODAY
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

THIS CHARMING COUPLE
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

WHO’S RIGHT
Affiliated Film Producers, 1954

WHO’S BOSS?
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

Runtime: approx. 85 min.